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In the TNG episode INHERITANCE,

Data meets Juliana Tainer and finds a holographic data chip in her head. The hologram is of Dr. Noonien Soong, who explains that he created the Juliana android, and installed the data chip in her head. Then he explains that Juliana eventually left him.

The hologram very clearly speaks from Dr. Soong's point of view:

SOONG: Why? There was no reason for her to know. I wanted her to be happy. I wanted us to be happy. We were. For a while.

DATA: What happened?

SOONG: I made a terrible mistake. I never really let her know how much I loved her. So she left me. The real Juliana probably would have left too, if she'd lived.

So, how could Soong install a chip where he talks about things that didn't yet happen at the time he installed the chip?

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  • 2
    Over-the-air updates.
    – chirlu
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 16:06
  • 5
    Maybe he installed a software patch via the subspace equivalent of wi-fi after she left him? It's also possible the chip was designed to simulate what Dr. Soong would say if he knew about any information that would later become available to the Juliana android's mind, in a similar way to how holodeck characters based on real people (like the Leah Brahms hologram in the TNG episode "Booby Trap") were able to react "in-character" to new information the originals didn't have but which were revealed to them by their interactions with people using the holodeck.
    – Hypnosifl
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 16:07

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Given that her hologram contains information about the end of her relationship with Dr. Soong, it seems extremely likely that he used the same sort of 'firmware update product recall' technology that he used on Data & Lore in TNG: Brothers. This would result in her coming back to his laboratory after she'd broken up with him, but with no memory of it having occurred.

He then updated her holomatrix to include the information that she'd chosen to leave him, and allowed her to go on her merry way, probably none the wiser that she'd ever been there or with a flimsy cover story to explain her slight memory loss.

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  • My cat sometimes disappears for a couple of days.
    – Xplodotron
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 16:29
  • 2
    @Xplodotron - Does your wife though?
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 17, 2016 at 16:32

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